Marine railway and the like



L. S. ROSENER AND R. H. TAYLOR.

MARHNE RAILWAY AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY I2, I921.

Patented Jan. 24, 1922.

* r WW L. S. ROSENER AND R. H. TAYLOR.

MARINE RAILWAY AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 12, 1921.

1,404,407. Patented Jan. 24, 1922.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

I/VIZVVTOR UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LELAND S. ROSENER, OF SAN FRANCISCO, AND ROBERT H. TAYLOR, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA; SAID TAYLOR ASSIGNOB TO SAID ROSENER.

MARINE RAILWAY AND THE LIKE.

Application filed May 12,

To 0: whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, LELAND S. RosENER and ROBERT H. TAYLOR, citizens of the United States, and residents of the city and county of San Francisco, and of the art of Oakland, county of Alameda, State of alifornia, respectively, have invented new and useful Improvements in Marine Railways and the like, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates primarily to the moving of large structures such as the cradle of a marine railway as for lifting ships out of the water by floating them over a cradle which cradle is mounted to travel on inclined tracks, and then drawing the cradle and ship along said tracks out of the water. Such a structure involves a transmission of very heavy strains over a considerable width of the cradle structure and it has been customary heretofore to employ a series of chains, cables or the like, each contributing its proportion of the hauling strain so that the total pull necessary to draw the cradle and its load out of the water is distributed over a plurality of tension elements. If these tension elements are connected to the proper points in-the cradle and if each carries its exact share of the load the internal stresses in the cradle structure and also of the ship being hauled are reduced to a'minimum. It has been customary to employ a plurality of chains or cables as these ten sion members and to connect them to an equalizing device which may advantageously consist of a plurality of pulleys around which is reaved a chain so that if any one of the tension members varies in length either as originally made or due to expansion or contraction from any cause so that its proportional loadwould be increased or decreased, equalization would then occur between the said reavedchains and pulleys so that at all times an equal load will be carried by all of the tension members. Our invention is directed to improvements in the above specified structure and has for its object a complete equalization of the tension strains in each of a pluralityofsuch tension members and in the event of breaking of any of these tensionmembers an immediate reequalization of the total load among the re mainingeifective tension members. A further object is the prevention-of any jar which Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 24, 1922.

1921. Serial No. 468,830.

might prove injurious to the remaining members if one of the tension members should break. Other objects will appear from the drawings and specifications which follow.

By referring to the accompanying drawings our invention will be made clear.

The drawings disclose one form of ship railway to which our invention is well suited, but it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that it may be applied to other forms of railway and also to other devices where the maintenance of an equalization of load isdesirable, and also that the detail construction and arrangement of parts may be varied to suit the taste of the individual designer or the requirements of particular installations without departing from the spirit of our invention, and we wish to be understood as claiming all such variations.

Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate on a small scale a ship railway and its operating parts in elevation and plan respectively.

Figs. 3 and 4 are a side and plan View, respectively, of one of the stop members, the latter being shown as section on the line IVIV of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of Fig. 2 showing some of the stop members and a portion of the equalizing mechanism comprising pulleys and chains andtheir manner of adjustment to the cradle and to the tension members.

Throughout the figures similar numerals refer to identical parts.

Referring particularly to Fig. 1 a cradle 1 is adapted-to travel on the inclined tracks 2 from below the water surface 3 to a desired location on the shore and clear of the water so that any ship structure or the like carried on the cradle 1 may be exposed for repairs. The cradle is arranged with the rollers 4 which are adapted to travel upon the tracks 2, 2. At 5 is shown a winch operating a plurality of sprockets as 6, 6, 6, 6, each adapted to actuate a chain or tension member as 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, which tension members are reaved over the sprockets 6 at one end and attached by eyebolts as 15 to the drawheads 16. Upon the o posite end ofthe drawheads are mounted t e ulleys 17 to 24 inclusive, and between t ese pulleys are other pulleys 25 to 31 inclusive. Reavcd about the pulleys 17 to 24 and the pulleys 25 to 31, inclusive, is the chain 32,

33, and the pulleys 25 to 31 are mounted upon suitable axles 34 supported from the structure of the cradle 1.

It will now be seen that any inequality in the lengths of the tension members 7 to 14 results in a displacement ofits pulley in the line of pulleys 17 to 24 and an adjustment. of the chain 32, 33 about the pulleys 25 to 31 such that an equal load will be carried by each of the tension members 7 to 14 and hence the structure ofthe cradle 1 will be stressed equally at the pivot supports 34 of each of the pulleys 25 to 31 inclusive. As here illustrated our invention consists of the parts as best shown in Figs. 3. 4, 5, wherein 16 illustrates a drawhead supporting the pivot 35 and the pulley 17. Transversely mounted across the cradle 1 is the stop bar 36 and mounted thereupon are dash pots 37 within which are pistons 38 and plungers 39, the latter engaging the block 40'and pivot 41 to the drawhead 16 so that any shrinking of the distance between the eye-bolt pivot 41 and the pulley pivot 35 is resisted by oil or other suitable fluid contained in the dash pot or cylinder 37. The cylinders arecross connected with the pipe 46. It will now be apparent that any breakage in one of the tension members as at the link 42 of Fig. 5 will result in the pulling of the d'rawhead 16 by the chain 32, 33, so that the piston 38 will be forced into the cylinder 37 until it arrives at the bottom. The strains due to the weight, friction, etc., of the entire cradle 1 and its load being now taken up over the remaining chains or tension members as 8, 9, 11, etc., so that the entire load will be distributed between the 7 tension members still in servicewhen any one of the original 8 tension members has broken.

l'Vhen the link 42 has broken the pulley 17 will be retracted by the chain 32, 33 from its dotted position 17 to itsfull line position and simultaneously therewith the pulleys 18, 19, 21, will shift from their dotted positions to their full line positions; this movement will not take place 'as a sudden jar, because the piston 38 in cylinder 37 has moved from its position as shown in Fig. 4 to its position as shown in F ig. 5 only at such a rate as oil or other fluid can flow through the equalizing pipe 46 and'distribute itself into the other cylinders. The eradle 1 will therefore upon the breaking of the link 42 settle downward slowly under the restraining action of the flowing fluid through the pipe 46 a distance equal to the distance between the dotted and full line positions of the pulleys as 18, 19, 21 and the load originally carried by the link 42 will have redistributed itself over the other seven chains 8 to 14 inclusive. The drawhead .40 is held in its retracted position by the piston rod 39, piston 38,. cylinder 37 against cross member 47 which latter is tied as at 48 and 49 to the main structure of the cradle land the pulleys 25 and 31 inclusive are all mounted upon pivot members 34 which are fixed to the cross member 50 supported as at 51 and 52 to the main body of the cradle 1. I

Referring to Fig. 2 it will be seen that the S chains 7 to 14 carry a load which is equally distributed over 16 laps of the chain 32, 33, and we prefer to make these chains of equal strengthso that throughout the equalizing device consisting of the trains of pulleys 17 to 31 and the chain 32,33 weemploy a safety factor which is twice that calculated to be safe for the chains 7 to 14. In this way at all times any possibility of breakage in the equalizing structure is avoided and any break which'may occur in the tension members of chains 7 to 14 will instantly redistribute itself through the remaining tension chains and equalizing device and no interruption in service will occur. V V

The equalizer pipe 46 which enables fluid passage between the several cylinders may with advantage be connected to a fluid sup ply reservoir, not shown but well known.

l/Ve claim: 1. In a marine'railway, winding means or the like adapted to pull a plurality of chains, a plurality of chains, a yoke at the end of each chain, a cylinder and piston in: terposed between said yokes, a cradle, and strain equalizing means between said yokes and said cradle. V V

2. In a marine railway, winding means or the like adapted to pull a plurality-of chains, a plurality of chains, a yoke at the end of each chain, a cylinder and piston interposed between said yokes, acradle, and strain equalizing means between'said yokes and ternately aboutisaid pulleys and'an equalizing pipe between said cylinders. I

4. 'Apparatus'as set. forth in claim 3 wherein there is a loop of said cable reaved about each oftheyokepulleys. p

LELAND s. RosfENIiR. ROBERT TAYLOR. 

